TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Politics is more difficult than physics.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index E > Category: Effective

Effective Quotes (68 quotes)

[An outsider views a scientist] as a type of unscrupulous opportunist: he appears as a realist, insofar as he seeks to describe the world independent of the act of perception; as idealist insofar as he looks upon the concepts and theories as the free inventions of the human spirit (not logically derivable from that which is empirically given); as positivist insofar as he considers his concepts and theories justified only to the extent to which they furnish a logical representation of relations among sense experiences. He may even appear as Platonist or Pythagorean insofar as he considers the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and effective tool of his research.
In 'Reply to Critcisms', Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1959), Vol. 2, 684.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Appear (122)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consider (428)  |  Describe (132)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Free (239)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Spirit (12)  |  Idealist (5)  |  Independent (74)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Invention (400)  |  Justify (26)  |  Logical (57)  |  Look (584)  |  Opportunist (3)  |  Outsider (7)  |  Perception (97)  |  Platonist (2)  |  Positivist (5)  |  Realist (3)  |  Relation (166)  |  Representation (55)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tool (129)  |  Type (171)  |  Unscrupulous (2)  |  View (496)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  World (1850)

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty until found effective.
Edward Teller, Wendy Teller, Wilson Talley, Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics (1991, 2002), Footnote, 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Guilt (13)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Innocence (13)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Novel (35)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Statement (148)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Want (504)

Adrenalin does not excite sympathetic ganglia when applied to them directly, as does nicotine. Its effective action is localised at the periphery. The existence upon plain muscle of a peripheral nervous network, that degenerates only after section of both the constrictor and inhibitory nerves entering it, and not after section of either alone, has been described. I find that even after such complete denervation, whether of three days' or ten months' duration, the plain muscle of the dilatator pupillae will respond to adrenalin, and that with greater rapidity and longer persistence than does the iris whose nervous relations are uninjured. Therefore it cannot be that adrenalin excites any structure derived from, and dependent for its persistence on, the peripheral neurone. But since adrenalin does not evoke any reaction from muscle that has at no time of its life been innervated by the sympathetic, the point at which the stimulus of the chemical excitant is received, and transformed into what may cause the change of tension of the muscle fibre, is perhaps a mechanism developed out of the muscle cell in response to its union with the synapsing sympathetic fibre, the function of which is to receive and transform the nervous impulse. Adrenalin might then be the chemical stimulant liberated on each occasion when the impulse arrives at the periphery.
'On the Action of Adrenalin', Proceedings of the Physiological Society, 21 May 1904, in The Journal of Physiology 1904, 31, xxi.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Adrenaline (5)  |  Alone (324)  |  Applied (176)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complete (209)  |  Develop (278)  |  Evoke (13)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Function (235)  |  Greater (288)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Month (91)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Network (21)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Point (584)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Receive (117)  |  Response (56)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  Tension (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transform (74)  |  Union (52)  |  Will (2350)

Algebra and money are essentially levelers; the first intellectually, the second effectively.
In Gravity and Grace (1952), 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Essential (210)  |  First (1302)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Level (69)  |  Money (178)

All scientists must focus closely on limited targets. Whether or not one’s findings on a limited subject will have wide applicability depends to some extent on chance, but biologists of superior ability repeatedly focus on questions the answers to which either have wide ramifications or lead to new areas of investigation. One procedure that can be effective is to attempt both reduction and synthesis; that is, direct a question at a phenomenon on one integrative level, identify its mechanism at a simpler level, then extrapolate its consequences to a more complex level of integration.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 230-231,
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Answer (389)  |  Applicability (7)  |  Area (33)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Chance (244)  |  Closely (12)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Depend (238)  |  Direct (228)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extrapolate (3)  |  Findings (6)  |  Focus (36)  |  Identify (13)  |  Integration (21)  |  Integrative (2)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Question (649)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Simple (426)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superior (88)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Target (13)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.
Selected writings of Elbert Hubbard (1928), 101.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Business (156)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Economic (84)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Way (1214)

But weightier still are the contentment which comes from work well done, the sense of the value of science for its own sake, insatiable curiosity, and, above all, the pleasure of masterly performance and of the chase. These are the effective forces which move the scientist. The first condition for the progress of science is to bring them into play.
from his preface to Claude Bernard's 'Experimental Medicine'
Science quotes on:  |  Bring (95)  |  Chase (14)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Insatiable (7)  |  Masterly (2)  |  Move (223)  |  Performance (51)  |  Play (116)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Sake (61)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Still (614)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

By virtue of the way it has organized its technological base, contemporary industrial society tends to be totalitarian. For 'totalitarian' is not only a terroristic political coordination of society, but also a non-terroristic economic-technical coordination which operates through the manipulation of needs by vested interests. It thus precludes the emergence of an effective opposition against the whole. Not only a specific form of government or party rule makes for totalitarianism, but also a specific system of production and distribution which may well be compatible with a 'pluralism' of parties, newspapers, 'countervailing powers,' etc.
One Dimensional Man (1964), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Base (120)  |  Coordination (11)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Form (976)  |  Government (116)  |  Industry (159)  |  Interest (416)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Newspaper (39)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Party (19)  |  Pluralism (3)  |  Political (124)  |  Power (771)  |  Production (190)  |  Rule (307)  |  Society (350)  |  Specific (98)  |  System (545)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Tend (124)  |  Through (846)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

Effective science began when it passed from the occasional amateur into the hands of men who made the winning of knowledge their special function or profession.
Address to 48th annual summer convention of the American Institute of Electriccal Engineers, Cleveland (21 Jun 1932), abridged in 'The Rôle of the Engineer', The Electrical Journal (1932), 109, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Amateur (22)  |  Function (235)  |  Hand (149)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Making (300)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Profession (108)  |  Special (188)  |  Winning (19)

Forests are a fundamental component of our planet’s recovery. They are the best technology nature has for locking away carbon. And they are centers of biodiversity. Again, the two features work together. The wilder and more diverse forests are, the more effective they are at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere
From narration to Netflix TV program, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future (4 Oct 2020).
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Best (467)  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Center (35)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Component (51)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Feature (49)  |  Forest (161)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Lock (14)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Planet (402)  |  Recovery (24)  |  Technology (281)  |  Together (392)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)

Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.
Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis (1945, 1999), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Inner (72)  |  Life (1870)  |  Remain (355)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Still (614)  |  Therapist (3)  |  Way (1214)

I have, also, a good deal of respect for the job they [physicists] did in the first months after Hiroshima. The world desperately needed information on this new problem in the daily life of the planet, and the physicists, after a slow start, did a good job of giving it to them. It hasn’t come out with a fraction of the efficiency that the teachers might have wished, but it was infinitely more effective than anyone would have dared expect.
In 'A Newsman Looks at Physicists', Physics Today (May 1948), 1, No. 1, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Deal (192)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Expect (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Information (173)  |  Job (86)  |  Life (1870)  |  Month (91)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Planet (402)  |  Problem (731)  |  Respect (212)  |  Slow (108)  |  Start (237)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

I realized both the upper and lower body must be held securely in place with one strap across the chest and one across the hips. The belt also needed an immovable anchorage point for the buckle as far down beside the occupant’s hip, so it could hold the body properly during a collision. It was just a matter of finding a solution that was simple, effective and could be put on conveniently with one hand.
as quoted in New York Times obituary, 26 Sep 2002
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Car (75)  |  Collision (16)  |  Down (455)  |  Invention (400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Must (1525)  |  Point (584)  |  Safety (58)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)

I would not want to generalize to the extent that adversity is the only road to effective innovative science, or art, but the progress of science is often spectacularly disorderly. James Joyce once commented that he survived by “cunning and exile”.
In 'Homo Scientificus According to Beckett', collected in William Beranek, Jr. (ed.),Science, Scientists, and Society, (1972), 135-. Excerpted in Ann E. Kammer, Science, Sex, and Society (1979), 278.
Science quotes on:  |  Adversity (6)  |  Art (680)  |  Comment (12)  |  Cunning (17)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Exile (6)  |  Innovative (3)  |  James Joyce (5)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Road (71)  |  Science (39)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Survive (87)

If a mathematician wishes to disparage the work of one of his colleagues, say, A, the most effective method he finds for doing this is to ask where the results can be applied. The hard pressed man, with his back against the wall, finally unearths the researches of another mathematician B as the locus of the application of his own results. If next B is plagued with a similar question, he will refer to another mathematician C. After a few steps of this kind we find ourselves referred back to the researches of A, and in this way the chain closes.
From final remarks in 'The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics' (1944), collected in Leonard Linsky (ed.), Semantics and the Philosophy of Language: A Collection of Readings (1952), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Chain (51)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Disparage (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hard (246)  |  Kind (564)  |  Locus (5)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Question (649)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Step (234)  |  Wall (71)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

If you ask ... the man in the street ... the human significance of mathematics, the answer of the world will be, that mathematics has given mankind a metrical and computatory art essential to the effective conduct of daily life, that mathematics admits of countless applications in engineering and the natural sciences, and finally that mathematics is a most excellent instrumentality for giving mental discipline... [A mathematician will add] that mathematics is the exact science, the science of exact thought or of rigorous thinking.
Address (28 Mar 1912), Michigan School Masters' Club, Ann Arbor, 'The Humanization of the Teaching of Mathematics. Printed in Science (26 Apr 1912). Collected in The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking: Essays and Addresses (1916), 65-66.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Application (257)  |  Art (680)  |  Ask (420)  |  Computation (28)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Countless (39)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exact Science (11)  |  Human (1512)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man In The Street (2)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Metrical (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Significance (114)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

In scientific investigations it is grievously wrong to pander to the public’s impatience for results, or to let them think that for discovery it is necessary only to set up a great manufactory and a system of mass production. If in treatment team work is effective, in research it is the individual who counts first and above all. No great thought has ever sprung from anything but a single mind, suddenly conceiving. Throughout the whole world there has been too violent a forcing of the growth of ideas; too feverish a rush to perform experiments and publish conclusions. A year of vacation for calm detachment with all the individual workers thinking it all over in a desert should be proclaimed.
In Viewless Winds: Being the Recollections and Digressions of an Australian Surgeon (1939), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Calm (32)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Count (107)  |  Desert (59)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feverish (6)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grievous (4)  |  Growth (200)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Individual (420)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Manufactory (2)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mass Production (4)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Pander (3)  |  Perform (123)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Production (190)  |  Public (100)  |  Publish (42)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Rush (18)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Up (3)  |  Single (365)  |  Spring (140)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  System (545)  |  Team (17)  |  Teamwork (6)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Vacation (4)  |  Violent (17)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Year (963)

In the same sense that our judicial system presumes us to be innocent until proven guilty, a medical care system may work best if it starts with the presumption that most people are healthy. Left to themselves, computers may try to do it in the opposite way, taking it as given that some sort of direct, continual, professional intervention is required all the time, in order to maintain the health of each citizen, and we will end up spending all our money on nothing but this.
In 'Aspects of Biomedical Science Policy', The New England Journal of Medicine (12 Oct 1972), 4. Also published as Occasional Paper of the Institute of Medicine.
Science quotes on:  |  All The Time (4)  |  Best (467)  |  Care (203)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Computer (131)  |  Continual (44)  |  Direct (228)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Guilty (8)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Judicial (3)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Medical (31)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  People (1031)  |  Presume (9)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Professional (77)  |  Prove (261)  |  Required (108)  |  Sense (785)  |  Spending (24)  |  Start (237)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

In the years since man unlocked the power stored up within the atom, the world has made progress, halting, but effective, toward bringing that power under human control. The challenge may be our salvation. As we begin to master the destructive potentialities of modern science, we move toward a new era in which science can fulfill its creative promise and help bring into existence the happiest society the world has ever known.
From Address to the Centennial Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1963), 'A Century of Scientific Conquest.' Online at The American Presidency Project.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Begin (275)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Control (182)  |  Creative (144)  |  Era (51)  |  Existence (481)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Human (1512)  |  Known (453)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Move (223)  |  New (1273)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Promise (72)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Society (350)  |  Unlock (12)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

It is my thesis that the physical functioning of the living individual and the operation of some of the newer communication machines are precisely parallel in their analogous attempts to control entropy through feedback. Both of them have sensory receptors as one stage in their cycle of operation: that is, in both of them there exists a special apparatus for collecting information from the outer world at low energy levels, and for making it available in the operation of the individual or of the machine. In both cases these external messages are not taken neat, but through the internal transforming powers of the apparatus, whether it be alive or dead. The information is then turned into a new form available for the further stages of performance. In both the animal and the machine this performance is made to be effective on the outer world. In both of them, their performed action on the outer world, and not merely their intended aetion, is reported back to the central regulatory apparatus.
In The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (1954), 26-27.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Alive (97)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Available (80)  |  Back (395)  |  Both (496)  |  Central (81)  |  Communication (101)  |  Control (182)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Energy (373)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Exist (458)  |  Feedback (10)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Individual (420)  |  Information (173)  |  Internal (69)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Low (86)  |  Machine (271)  |  Making (300)  |  Merely (315)  |  Message (53)  |  New (1273)  |  Operation (221)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Special (188)  |  Stage (152)  |  Thesis (17)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  World (1850)

It is plainly the popularization of science that is responsible for the fever and instability apparent on all sides. To withhold knowledge from people, or to place unassimilable knowledge in their hands, are both equally effective, if you wish to render them helpless.
In The Art of Being Ruled (1926), 423.
Science quotes on:  |  Fever (34)  |  Hand (149)  |  Helpless (14)  |  Instability (4)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  People (1031)  |  Place (192)  |  Popularization (3)  |  Render (96)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Wish (216)  |  Withhold (2)

It need scarcely be pointed out that with such a mechanism complete isolation of portion of a species should result relatively rapidly in specific differentiation, and one that is not necessarily adaptive. The effective inter­group competition leading to adaptive advance may be between species rather than races. Such isolation is doubtless usually geographic in character at the outset but may be clinched by the development of hybrid sterility. The usual difference of the chromosome complements of related species puts the importance of chromosome aberration as an evolutionary process beyond question, but, as I see it, this importance is not in the character differences which they bring (slight in balanced types), but rather in leading to the sterility of hybrids and thus making permanent the isolation of two groups.
How far do the observations of actual species and their subdivisions conform to this picture? This is naturally too large a subject for more than a few suggestions.
That evolution involves non-adaptive differentiation to a large extent at the subspecies and even the species level is indicated by the kinds of differences by which such groups are actually distinguished by systematics. It is only at the subfamily and family levels that clear-cut adaptive differences become the rule. The principal evolutionary mechanism in the origin of species must thus be an essentially nonadaptive one.
In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics: Ithaca, New York, 1932 (1932) Vol. 1, 363-364.
Science quotes on:  |  Aberration (10)  |  Actual (118)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Advance (298)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Character (259)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Clear-Cut (10)  |  Competition (45)  |  Complement (6)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cut (116)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extent (142)  |  Family (101)  |  Geographic (10)  |  Geography (39)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inter (12)  |  Involve (93)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Kind (564)  |  Large (398)  |  Making (300)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Observation (593)  |  Origin (250)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Picture (148)  |  Point (584)  |  Portion (86)  |  Principal (69)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  See (1094)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Sterility (10)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Usually (176)

It’s much more effective to allow solutions to problems to emerge from the people close to the problem rather than to impose them from higher up.
Interviewed in 'Simple, Yet Complex', CIO (15 Apr 1998), 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Close (77)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Higher (37)  |  Imposition (5)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)

Lord Kelvin had, in a manner hardly and perhaps never equalled before, except by Archimedes, the power of theorizing on the darkest, most obscure, and most intimate secrets of Nature, and at the same time, and almost in the same breath, carrying out effectively and practically some engineering feat, or carrying to a successful issue some engineering invention. He was one of the leaders in the movement which has compelled all modern engineers worthy of the name to be themselves men not merely of practice, but of theory, to carry out engineering undertakings in the spirit of true scientific inquiry and with an eye fixed on the rapidly growing knowledge of the mechanics of Nature, which can only be acquired by the patient work of physicists and mathematicians in their laboratories and studies.
In Speech (May 1921) to the Institute of Civil Engineers, to award the newly created Kelvin Medal. As quoted in Sarah Knowles Bolton, 'Lord Kelvin', Famous Men of Science (1889, Revised Ed. 1926), 316-317.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Compel (31)  |  Dark (145)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feat (11)  |  Fix (34)  |  Growth (200)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Invention (400)  |  Issue (46)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Leader (51)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mere (86)  |  Modern (402)  |  Movement (162)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practice (212)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secret (216)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Success (327)  |  Theorize (2)  |  Theory (1015)  |  True (239)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

Method means that arrangement of subject matter which makes it most effective in use. Never is method something outside of the material.
Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916), 194.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Education (423)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Outside (141)  |  Something (718)  |  Subject (543)  |  Use (771)

More discoveries have arisen from intense observation of very limited material than from statistics applied to large groups. The value of the latter lies mainly in testing hypotheses arising from the former. While observing one should cultivate a speculative, contemplative attitude of mind and search for clues to be followed up. Training in observation follows the same principles as training in any activity. At first one must do things consciously and laboriously, but with practice the activities gradually become automatic and unconscious and a habit is established. Effective scientific observation also requires a good background, for only by being familiar with the usual can we notice something as being unusual or unexplained.
The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950), 101.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Applied (176)  |  Arising (22)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Background (44)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Good (906)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Large (398)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Material (366)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (593)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Search (175)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Training (92)  |  Unexplained (8)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Value (393)

No effective historian of the future can be innocent of statistics, and indeed he or she should probably be a literate amateur economist, psychologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and geographer.
In 'The Challenge of Modern Historiography', American Historical Review (1 Feb 1982), 87, No. 1, 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Amateur (22)  |  Anthropologist (8)  |  Economist (20)  |  Future (467)  |  Geographer (7)  |  Historian (59)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Literate (2)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Sociologist (5)  |  Statistics (170)

Nothing enrages me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn math and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities. (1981)
Quoted in K.P. Yaday and Malti Sundram, Encyclopaedia Of Child And Primary Education Development, Vol. 2, 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Criticize (7)  |  Dishonest (7)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Infantile (3)  |  Job (86)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Passive (8)  |  People (1031)  |  School (227)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)

One hardly knows where, in the history of science, to look for an important movement that had its effective start in so pure and simple an accident as that which led to the building of the great Washington telescope, and went on to the discovery of the satellites of Mars.
In The Reminiscences of an Astronomer (1903), Vol. 3, 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Building (158)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Importance (299)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Look (584)  |  Mars (47)  |  Moon (252)  |  Movement (162)  |  Pure (299)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Simple (426)  |  Start (237)  |  Telescope (106)

One of the major goals when studying specific genetic diseases is to find the primary gene product, which in turn leads to a better understanding of the biochemical basis of the disorder. The bottom line often reads, 'This may lead to effective prenatal diagnosis and eventual eradication of the disease.' But we now have the ironic situation of being able to jump right to the bottom line without reading the rest of the page, that is, without needing to identify the primary gene product or the basic biochemical mechanism of the disease. The technical capability of doing this is now available. Since the degree of departure from our previous approaches and the potential of this procedure are so great, one will not be guilty of hyperbole in calling it the 'New Genetics'.
'Prenatal Diagnosis and the New Genetics', The American Journal of Human Genetics, 1980, 32:3, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Basic (144)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Capability (44)  |  Degree (277)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Disease (340)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Doing (277)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gene (105)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Goal (155)  |  Great (1610)  |  Jump (31)  |  Lead (391)  |  Major (88)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  New (1273)  |  Potential (75)  |  Primary (82)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Product (166)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Situation (117)  |  Specific (98)  |  Studying (70)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open.
In Civilization: An Essay (1928), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Convince (43)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Open (277)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recognition (93)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)

Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Bug (10)  |  Hopelessly (3)  |  Inadequate (20)  |  Presence (63)  |  Program (57)  |  Show (353)  |  Test (221)  |  Way (1214)

Recognition of human variation is basic to sensitive and effective nursing care and outcomes.
As quoted in American Nurses’ Association, Contemporary Minority Leaders in Nursing: Afro-American, Hispanic, Native American Perspectives (1983), 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Care (203)  |  Human (1512)  |  Nurse (33)  |  Outcome (15)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Sensitive (15)  |  Variation (93)

Research under a paradigm must be a particularly effective way of inducing paradigm change.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Must (1525)  |  Paradigm (16)  |  Research (753)  |  Way (1214)

Science can be interpreted effectively only for those who have more than the usual intelligence and innate curiosity. These will work hard if given the chance and if they find they acquire something by so doing.
(1940). Epigraph, without citation, in I. Bernard Cohen, Science, Servant of Man: A Layman's Primer for the Age of Science (1948), xi. Also seen epigraph, without citation in Science Digest (1950), 28, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Chance (244)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Doing (277)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hard (246)  |  Innate (14)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interpret (25)  |  More (2558)  |  Something (718)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Work Hard (14)

Science has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying, everything except itself. It has made possible the tremendous modern development of power of organization which has so multiplied the effective power of human effort as to make the differences from the past seem to be of kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. Scientific men are only recently realizing that the principles which apply to success on a large scale in transportation and manufacture and general staff work to apply them; that the difference between a mob and an army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human nature; that the effective power of a great number of scientific men may be increased by organization just as the effective power of a great number of laborers may be increased by military discipline.
'The Need for Organization in Scientific Research', in Bulletin of the National Research Council: The National Importance of Scientific and Industrial Research (Oct 1919), Col 1, Part 1, No. 1, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Army (35)  |  Classification (102)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Effort (243)  |  Everything (489)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Kind (564)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Large (398)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Military (45)  |  Mob (10)  |  Modern (402)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Success (327)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Work (1402)

Science is a collaborative effort. The combined results of several people working together is often much more effective than could be that of an individual scientist working alone.
From his second Nobel Prize Banquet speech (10 Dec 1972). In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1972 (1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Combine (58)  |  Effort (243)  |  Individual (420)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Several (33)  |  Together (392)  |  Work (1402)

Science is a field which grows continuously with ever expanding frontiers. Further, it is truly international in scope. … Science is a collaborative effort. The combined results of several people working together is often much more effective than could be that of an individual scientist working alone.
From his second Nobel Prize Banquet speech (10 Dec 1972). In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1972 (1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Combination (150)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Effort (243)  |  Field (378)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Grow (247)  |  Individual (420)  |  International (40)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Scope (44)  |  Together (392)  |  Truly (118)  |  Work (1402)

Science is the way—a powerful way, indeed—to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective—in fact, it’s rather ineffective—in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other.
From transcript of interview by Bob Abernathy with Francis Collins on PBS TV program 'Religion and Ethics'(16 Jun 2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Coexist (4)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Different (595)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Important (229)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Ineffective (6)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Making (300)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Real (159)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Study (701)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

Take the sum of human achievement in action, in science, in art, in literature—subtract the work of the men above forty, and while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures, we would practically be where we are today. … The effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty.
In farewell address, Johns Hopkins University, 'The Fixed Period', as quoted in Harvey Cushing, The Life of Sir William Osier (1925), vol. 1, 666.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Action (342)  |  Age (509)  |  Art (680)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Literature (116)  |  Miss (51)  |  Priceless (9)  |  Retirement (8)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Sum (103)  |  Today (321)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Vital (89)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Technology is … “practical arts”; in that guise, technology has been around for a good two million years. The Pleistocene spearpoint flaked from pink flint…was the high technology of its day, as sophisticated and effective as a samurai sword or a fighter jet.
In 'Introduction', Visions of Technology (1999), 21-22
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Flake (7)  |  Flint (7)  |  Million (124)  |  Pleistocene (4)  |  Practical (225)  |  Samurai (2)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Spearhead (2)  |  Sword (16)  |  Technology (281)  |  Year (963)

The achievements of the Beagle did not just depend on FitzRoy’s skill as a hydrographer, nor on Darwin’s skill as a natural scientist, but on the thoroughly effective fashion in which everyone on board pulled together. Of course Darwin and FitzRoy had their quarrels, but all things considered, they were remarkably infrequent. To have shared such cramped quarters for nearly five years with a man often suffering from serious depression, prostrate part of the time with sea sickness, with so little friction, Darwin must have been one of the best-natured people ever! This is, indeed, apparent in his letters. And anyone who has participated in a scientific expedition will agree that when he wrote from Valparaiso in July 1834 that ‘The Captain keeps all smooth by rowing everyone in turn, which of course he has as much right to do as a gamekeeper to shoot partridges on the first of September’, he was putting a finger on an important ingredient in the Beagle’s success.
From Introduction to The Beagle Record (1979, 2012), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beagle (14)  |  Best (467)  |  Biography (254)  |  Captain (16)  |  Consider (428)  |  Course (413)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Depend (238)  |  Depression (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Expedition (9)  |  First (1302)  |  Robert Fitzroy (4)  |  Friction (14)  |  Hydrographer (3)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Scientist (6)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Partridge (2)  |  People (1031)  |  Pull (43)  |  Quarrel (10)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sea (326)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Skill (116)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Success (327)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

The average English author [of mathematical texts] leaves one under the impression that he has made a bargain with his reader to put before him the truth, the greater part of the truth, and nothing but the truth; and that if he has put the facts of his subject into his book, however difficult it may be to unearth them, he has fulfilled his contract with his reader. This is a very much mistaken view, because effective teaching requires a great deal more than a bare recitation of facts, even if these are duly set forth in logical order—as in English books they often are not. The probable difficulties which will occur to the student, the objections which the intelligent student will naturally and necessarily raise to some statement of fact or theory—these things our authors seldom or never notice, and yet a recognition and anticipation of them by the author would be often of priceless value to the student. Again, a touch of humour (strange as the contention may seem) in mathematical works is not only possible with perfect propriety, but very helpful; and I could give instances of this even from the pure mathematics of Salmon and the physics of Clerk Maxwell.
In Perry, Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 59-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Author (175)  |  Average (89)  |  Bare (33)  |  Bargain (5)  |  Book (413)  |  Clerk (13)  |  Contention (14)  |  Contract (11)  |  Deal (192)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  English (35)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forth (14)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Humour (116)  |  Impression (118)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Leave (138)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Naturally (11)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Objection (34)  |  Occur (151)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (638)  |  Part (235)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possible (560)  |  Priceless (9)  |  Probable (24)  |  Propriety (6)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reader (42)  |  Recitation (2)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Require (229)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Seem (150)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Set (400)  |  Statement (148)  |  Strange (160)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Text (16)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Touch (146)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unearth (2)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The essence of modernity is that progress no longer waits on genius; instead we have learned to put our faith in the organized efforts of ordinary men. Science is as old as the race, but the effective organization of science is new. Ancient science, like placer mining, was a pursuit of solitary prospectors. Nuggets of truth were found, but the total wealth of knowledge increased slowly. Modern man began to transform this world when he began to mine the hidden veins of knowledge systematically.
In School and Society (1930), 31, 581.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Effort (243)  |  Essence (85)  |  Faith (209)  |  Finding (34)  |  Genius (301)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Increased (3)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mine (78)  |  Mining (22)  |  Modern (402)  |  New (1273)  |  Nugget (3)  |  Old (499)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Organization (120)  |  Progress (492)  |  Prospector (5)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Race (278)  |  Slowly (19)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Total (95)  |  Transform (74)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Vein (27)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Wealth (100)  |  World (1850)

The ingenuity and effective logic that enabled chemists to determine complex molecular structures from the number of isomers, the reactivity of the molecule and of its fragments, the freezing point, the empirical formula, the molecular weight, etc., is one of the outstanding triumphs of the human mind.
'Trends in Chemistry', Chemical Engineering News, 7 Jan 1963, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Complex (202)  |  Determine (152)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Formula (102)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Freezing Point (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Isomer (6)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecular Structure (9)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Number (710)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Point (584)  |  Structure (365)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Weight (140)

The most effective way to do it is to do it.
Although this quote appears in circulation attributed to Earhart, it is usually without a source cited, for example in Karen Weekes, Women Know Everything!: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Brilliant Remarks (2007), 10. However, Webmaster has not yet found a primary print source. (If you know one, please contact the webmaster). The quote is also found attributed to Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995), for example, from 'In Search of the Mother Tongue: An Interview with Toni Cade Bambara', First World Journal (Fall 1980) quoted in Moraga and Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back, viii. Cited in Wendy Farley, Eros For The Other (1996), 148, as a reply when asked if fiction were the most effective way of 'unit[ing] our wrath, vision, our powers.' However, note that Bambara was born two years after Earhart's airplane was lost (1937).
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Initiative (17)  |  Most (1728)  |  Way (1214)

The most important effect of the suffrage is psychological. The permanent consciousness of power for effective action, the knowledge that their own thoughts have an equal chance with those of any other person … this is what has always rendered the men of a free state so energetic, so acutely intelligent, so powerful.
In “Common Sense” Applied to Woman Suffrage (1894), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Chance (244)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Effect (414)  |  Energetic (6)  |  Equal (88)  |  Free (239)  |  Important (229)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Person (366)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Render (96)  |  State (505)  |  Suffrage (4)  |  Thought (995)

The number of mathematical students … would be much augmented if those who hold the highest rank in science would condescend to give more effective assistance in clearing the elements of the difficulties which they present.
In Study and Difficulties of Mathematics (1902), Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  Assistance (23)  |  Augment (12)  |  Clear (111)  |  Condescend (2)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Element (322)  |  Give (208)  |  Highest (19)  |  Hold (96)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Present (630)  |  Rank (69)  |  Student (317)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)

The ponderous instrument of synthesis, so effective in his [Newton’s] hands, has never since been grasped by one who could use it for such purposes; and we gaze at it with admiring curiosity, as on some gigantic implement of war, which stands idle among the memorials of ancient days, and makes us wonder what manner of man he was who could wield as a weapon what we can hardly lift as a burden.
In History of the Inductive Sciences (1857), Vol. 2, 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Idle (34)  |  Implement (13)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Lift (57)  |  Man (2252)  |  Memorial (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Ponderous (2)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Stand (284)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Use (771)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Wonder (251)

The present state of electrical science seems peculiarly unfavorable to speculation … to appreciate the requirements of the science, the student must make himself familiar with a considerable body of most intricate mathematics, the mere retention of which in the memory materially interferes with further progress. The first process therefore in the effectual study of the science, must be one of simplification and reduction of the results of previous investigation to a form in which the mind can grasp them.
First sentence of Maxwell’s first paper (read 10 Dec 1855), 'On Faraday’s Lines of Force', Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (1857), Vol. X, part I. Collected in William Davidson Niven (ed.), The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1890), Vol. 1, 155.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Body (557)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Familiar (47)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Himself (461)  |  Interfere (17)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Result (700)  |  Retention (5)  |  Science And Education (17)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Speculation (137)  |  State (505)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Unfavorable (3)

The problem [evolution] presented itself to me, and something led me to think of the positive checks described by Malthus in his Essay on Population, a work I had read several years before, and which had made a deep and permanent impression on my mind. These checks—war, disease, famine, and the like—must, it occurred to me, act on animals as well as man. Then I thought of the enormously rapid multiplication of animals, causing these checks to be much more effective in them than in the case of man; and while pondering vaguely on this fact, there suddenly flashed upon me the idea of the survival of the fittest—that the individuals removed by these checks must be on the whole inferior to those that survived. I sketched the draft of my paper … and sent it by the next post to Mr. Darwin.
In 'Introductory Note to Chapter II in Present Edition', Natural Selection and Tropical Nature Essays on Descriptive and Theoretical Biology (1891, New ed. 1895), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Animal (651)  |  Cause (561)  |  Check (26)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Deep (241)  |  Disease (340)  |  Draft (6)  |  Essay (27)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Famine (18)  |  Flash (49)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impression (118)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Thomas Robert Malthus (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Paper (192)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Ponder (15)  |  Population (115)  |  Positive (98)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Read (308)  |  Remove (50)  |  Something (718)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Survive (87)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  War (233)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

The progress of science is often affected more by the frailties of humans and their institutions than by the limitations of scientific measuring devices. The scientific method is only as effective as the humans using it. It does not automatically lead to progress.
Chemistry (1989), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Automatic (16)  |  Device (71)  |  Human (1512)  |  Institution (73)  |  Lead (391)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)

The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that don’t master them, the software crisis will remain with us and will be considered an incurable disease. And you know what incurable diseases do: they invite the quacks and charlatans in, who in this case take the form of Software Engineering gurus.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Case (102)  |  Charlatan (8)  |  Consider (428)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Form (976)  |  Formal (37)  |  Incurable (10)  |  Invite (10)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  People (1031)  |  Pretty (21)  |  Program (57)  |  Quack (18)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remain (355)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Software (14)  |  Technique (84)  |  Will (2350)

The three most effective incentives to human action may be … classified as creed, greed and dread. … In examining the scientist it is perhaps worth while to examine how far he is moved by these three incentives. I think that, rather peculiarly and rather exceptionally, he is very little moved by dread. … He is in fact essentially a person who has been taught he must be fearless in his dealing with facts.
'Scientist and Citizen', Speech to the Empire Club of Canada (29 Jan 1948), The Empire Club of Canada Speeches (29 Jan 1948), 209-221.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Classification (102)  |  Creed (28)  |  Dread (13)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Examine (84)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fearless (7)  |  Greed (17)  |  Human (1512)  |  Incentive (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Person (366)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Think (1122)  |  Worth (172)

The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can’t solve the equations, directly in the abstract. We need to use the effective theory of Darwinian natural selection of those societies most likely to survive. We assign them higher value.
[Answer to question: What is the value in knowing “Why are we here?”]
'Stephen Hawking: "There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story"', interview in newspaper The Guardian (15 May 2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Answer (389)  |  Assignment (12)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Directly (25)  |  Equation (138)  |  Govern (66)  |  Governing (20)  |  Higher (37)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Likely (36)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Need (320)  |  Question (649)  |  Selection (130)  |  Society (350)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survive (87)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Why (491)

The war on drugs must be a metaphorical war. But that … has to do with our stubborn determination not to come to grips with what a drug is: … our refusal to recognize that the term “drug” is not only a medical but also a political concept. … In short, while seemingly the word “drug” is a part of the vocabulary of science, it is even more importantly a part of the vocabulary of politics. … A drug is either good or bad, effective or ineffective, therapeutic or noxious, licit or illicit. … We deploy them simultaneously as technical tools in our fight against medical diseases and as scapegoats in our struggle for personal security and political stability.
From 'The Morality of Drug Controls', collected in Ronald Hamowy (ed.), Dealing with Drugs: Consequences of Government Control (1987), 328.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Concept (242)  |  Deploy (3)  |  Determination (80)  |  Disease (340)  |  Fight (49)  |  Good (906)  |  Ineffective (6)  |  Medical (31)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Noxious (8)  |  Personal (75)  |  Politics (122)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Scapegoat (3)  |  Science (39)  |  Security (51)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Stability (28)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Stubborn (14)  |  Technical (53)  |  Term (357)  |  Therapeutic (6)  |  Tool (129)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  War On Drugs (2)  |  Word (650)

The work of the true man of Science is a perpetual striving after a better and closer knowledge of the planet on which his lot is cast, and of the universe in the vastness of which that planet is lost. The only way of doing this effectually, is to proceed as gradually, and therefore as surely as possible, along the dim untrodden ground lying beyond the known. Such is scientific work.
First sentence in Chap. 1, 'Waves: Preliminary', Studies in Spectrum Analysis (1878), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Close (77)  |  Dim (11)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Ground (222)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lose (165)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Planet (402)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Strive (53)  |  Sure (15)  |  True (239)  |  Universe (900)  |  Untrodden (2)  |  Vast (188)  |  Work (1402)

There is only one ultimate and effectual preventative for the maladies to which flesh is heir, and that is death.
'Medicine at the Crossroads', The Medical Career and Other Papers (1928, 1940), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Death (406)  |  Flesh (28)  |  Heir (12)  |  Malady (8)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Ultimate (152)

Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own. Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried them much too far...
Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception.
Novum Organum (1620)
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Already (226)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Correction (42)  |  Course (413)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Follow (389)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Injury (36)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Operation (221)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Professional (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rest (287)  |  Retain (57)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stage (152)  |  Start (237)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understood (155)

Time... is an essential requirement for effective research. An investigator may be given a palace to live in, a perfect laboratory to work in, he may be surrounded by all the conveniences money can provide; but if his time is taken from him he will remain sterile.
Quoted in S. Benison, A. C. Barger and E. L. Wolfe, Walter B Cannon: The Life and Times of a Young Scientist (1987), 253.
Science quotes on:  |  Convenience (54)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Live (650)  |  Money (178)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Remain (355)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Research (753)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

To my mind, the distinction between a nuclear weapon and a conventional weapon is the distinction between an effective weapon and an outmoded weapon.
In 'The Nature of Nuclear Warfare,' Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1957), 13, No. 5, 162. (Reprinted from Air Force Magazine.)
Science quotes on:  |  Conventional (31)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Weapon (17)  |  Outmoded (2)  |  Weapon (98)

We must make practice in thinking, or, in other words, the strengthening of reasoning power, the constant object of all teaching from infancy to adult age, no matter what may be the subject of instruction. … Effective training of the reasoning powers cannot be secured simply by choosing this subject or that for study. The method of study and the aim in studying are the all-important things.
From 'Wherein Popular Education has Failed' Forum (Dec 1892), collected in American Contributions to Civilization: And Other Essays and Addresses (1897), 229 & 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Adult (24)  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Choose (116)  |  Constant (148)  |  Education (423)  |  Important (229)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Practice (212)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Secure (23)  |  Secured (18)  |  Simply (53)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Subject (543)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Training (92)  |  Word (650)

We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to help make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power to prevent these weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.
In The New York Times, (29 Aug 1948).
Science quotes on:  |  Annihilation (15)  |  Being (1276)  |  Consider (428)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Do (1905)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

We shall therefore say that a program has common sense if it automatically deduces for itself a sufficient wide class of immediate consequences of anything it is told and what it already knows. ... Our ultimate objective is to make programs that learn from their experience as effectively as humans do.
'Programs with Common Sense', (probably the first paper on AI), delivered to the Teddington Conference on the Mechanization of Thought Processes (Dec 1958). Printed in National Physical Laboratory, Mechanisation of Thought Processes: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the National Physical Laboratory on 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th November 1958 (1959), 78. Also Summary in John McCarthy and Vladimir Lifschitz (ed.), Formalizing Common Sense: Papers by John McCarthy (1990), 9-10.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Automatic (16)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Definition (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experience (494)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Make (25)  |  Objective (96)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Wide (97)

When I was a boy, I read with great interest but skepticism about a magic lamp which was used with success by a certain Aladdin. Today I have no skepticism whatsoever about the magic of the xenon flash lamp which we use so effectively for many purposes.
In Electronic Flash, Strobe (1970), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Aladdin (2)  |  Boy (100)  |  Certain (557)  |  Flash (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interest (416)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Magic (92)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Read (308)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  Success (327)  |  Today (321)  |  Use (771)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Xenon (5)

When one ponders on the tremendous journey of evolution over the past three billion years or so, the prodigious wealth of structures it has engendered, and the extraordinarily effective teleonomic performances of living beings from bacteria to man, one may well find oneself beginning to doubt again whether all this could conceiveably be the product of an enormous lottery presided over by natural selection, blindly picking the rare winners from among numbers drawn at random. [Nevertheless,] a detailed review of the accumulated modern evidence [shows] that this conception alone is compatible with the facts.
In Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1971), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Billion (104)  |  Chance (244)  |  Conception (160)  |  Detail (150)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Find (1014)  |  Journey (48)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Past (355)  |  Performance (51)  |  Ponder (15)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Product (166)  |  Random (42)  |  Rare (94)  |  Review (27)  |  Selection (130)  |  Show (353)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Year (963)

Without initiation into the scientific spirit one is not in possession of the best tools humanity has so far devised for effectively directed reflection. [Without these one] fails to understand the full meaning of knowledge.
Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Devise (16)  |  Direct (228)  |  Fail (191)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Initiation (8)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Possession (68)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Tool (129)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School, improved and energized, as it can easily be, may become the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilization. Two reasons sustain this position. In the first place, there is a universality in its operation, which can be affirmed of no other institution whatever... And, in the second place, the materials upon which it operates are so pliant and ductile as to be susceptible of assuming a greater variety of forms than any other earthly work of the Creator.
Twelfth Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education (1948). Life and Works of Horace Mann (1891), Vol. 4, 232-233.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Common (447)  |  Creator (97)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Greater (288)  |  Human (1512)  |  Institution (73)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reason (766)  |  School (227)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Two (936)  |  Universality (22)  |  Variety (138)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Work (1402)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.